November and December 2024 Lunch With Books Programs at the Ohio County Public Library
Nov. 5 at Noon: Alan Fitzpatrick, Vengeance is Mine
Alan Fitzpatrick returns to discuss his latest book, Vengeance is Mine: The Untold Story of Bemino, Known as Killbuck. This frontier history book is about a most unusual and fierce Lenape warrior and shaman who ravaged the South Potomac River Valley of what is now West Virginia during the French and Indian War.
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Nov. 12 at Noon: Deep & Wild: A West Virginia Essay Collection with Laura Jackson
Laura Jackson is an environmental writer, humorist, and native of Wheeling, West Virginia. Her work has appeared in places like Terrain.org, Brevity, Hippocampus, and Still, and has been listed as “notable” in Best American Essays. Her essay collection, Deep & Wild: On Mountains, Opossums, & Finding Your Way in West Virginia, was released in October 2024.
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Nov. 19 at Noon: The Bridges of West Virginia with Jeanne Finstein
In recognition of the 175th anniversary of the opening of the Wheeling Suspension Bridge, this talk will highlight several other famous/infamous bridges in the state – ranging from the Monument Place Bridge in Elm Grove through the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayette County and the newest state bridge between Wellsburg, WV, and Brilliant, OH. Jeanne Finstein is currently president of Friends of Wheeling. Her background includes mathematics teaching and educational software development.
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Nov. 26 at Noon: Black Freedom on Native Land
Alaina E. Roberts is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Pittsburgh and the multi-award-winning author of I’ve Been Here All the While: Black Freedom on Native Land, which uses archival research and family history to upend the traditional story of Reconstruction. She has written for TIME magazine, High Country News, and the Washington Post, and her research has been featured in CNN, the New York Times, The Boston Globe, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic. Roberts will discuss the history of Black slave-owning among the Five Tribes (the Chickasaw, Choctaw, Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole Nations) and the Reconstruction project the United States enforced in Indian Territory (Oklahoma), which ended with the Black people in this region becoming the only group of former slaves in the world to receive reparations in the form of land.
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Dec. 3 at Noon: Wide Awake with Jon Grinspan
At the start of the 1860 presidential campaign, a handful of fired-up young Northerners (many of whom roamed the streets of Wheeling, Virginia) appeared as bodyguards to defend anti-slavery stump speakers from frequent attacks. The group called themselves the Wide Awakes. Soon, hundreds of thousands of young White and Black men, and a number of women, were organizing boisterous, uniformed, torch-bearing brigades of their own. These Wide Awakes–mostly working-class Americans in their twenties–became one of the largest, most spectacular, and most influential political movements in our history. To some, it demonstrated the power of a rising majority to push back against slavery. To others, it looked like a paramilitary force training to invade the South. Within a year, the nation would be at war with itself, and many on both sides would point to the Wide Awakes as the mechanism that got them there. Smithsonian historian Jon Grinspan will discuss his new book, Wide Awake: The Forgotten Force that Elected Lincoln and Spurred the Civil War.
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Dec. 10 at Noon: Front & Center: The Harold Vitale Auditorium Dedication & Chester Greenwood Day Celebration!
Harold Vitale was a cherished, long-time patron of the Ohio County Public Library and particularly of its Lunch With Books program. He consistently arrived early so that he could reserve his preferred seat at the first middle table (thus, “Front and Center”). He typically donned a fedora, so if you saw a fedora and a raincoat on a chair, you knew Harold was in the building. A long-time history teacher at John Marshall High School, he was a master of trivia, and loved to show that off, pontificating in his booming voice and asking presenters challenging questions or simply commenting on factoids they might have omitted. He took meticulous notes (where are those notes?), and routinely gifted the programming director with various shark-themed items he picked up at his beloved flea markets and yard sales. When he passed, he left the Library a generous gift. And now, the auditorium he spent so much time in will be dubbed, “The Harold Vitale Auditorium at the Ohio County Public Library.” Join us as we honor Harold, officially dedicating the room, hearing from former students and friends who knew him best, observing Chester Greenwood Day (attend and find out), sharing food (Harold was always first in line when there was food) and memories of this quirky gentleman, who sometimes stressed us out, often made us laugh, and always put his own unique spin on library programming.
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Dec. 12 at Noon: Legendary: Coach Dick LeBeau
To most NFL fans, Dick LeBeau is known as a football lifer, Pro Football Hall of Fame member, and mastermind behind the revolutionary zone blitz defense. But to Pittsburgh Steelers fans, LeBeau is the beloved defensive coaching genius who helped lead the Steelers to their last two championships – Super Bowl XL in 2005 and Super Bowl XLIII in 2008 – crafting a devastating 3-4 defensive scheme that came to define a treasured era of football in Pittsburgh. In Legendary, LeBeau along with veteran Steelers’ scribes Scott Brown and George Von Bunko will revisit that unforgettably dominant 2008 defensive unit, one of the most feared and successful in the modern NFL landscape. The program will include a conversation with Coach LeBeau by phone.
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Dec. 17 at Noon: Christmas Concert
Details TBA.
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Dec. 24: Library Closed– Merry Christmas
Dec. 31: Library Closed—Happy New Year!
New Archiving Wheeling Post: A Brief History of Centre Foundry
Centre Foundry & Machine Co., a Wheeling and South Warwood stalwart, closed its doors about one year ago, after 183 years. You read that right: 183 years of ironmaking. Recently, we had the privilege of a tour and an archival donation. From that, this brief history (and a library exhibit) was crafted. Click below to read more.
